Tudor Musings Season 3
by Dave-The-Laugh's-NewHotness
Summary: Third in my Tudor Musings series, this one covers the events of Season 3 of the Tudors. So far, these are just reposts of my previous ones, but there will be new ones soon.
1. A Husband's Suspicions  1537

Another repost of my Tudor musings series, this one deals with Henry becoming suspicious of Jane...please read and review

Disclaimer: I own nothing

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><p>Henry sat at dinner, trying not to notice the scores of superfluous attendants loitering around the room. Seven months of marriage and no sign of Jane being with child. The bounteous charms which had so drawn him to her a year ago had now begun to fade, the first blush had come off the rose, and compared to the outgoing confidence of Lady Misselden, Jane seemed, well, plain.<p>

Was he being punished for his sin with Katherine, still, after all this time? Or was Anne somehow making Jane barren? No, not Anne – she could not bear the blame for this. Being dead instantly absolved her of any crimes.

Still lost in hopeless thoughts, the King pushed his food around on the plate, barely tasting it. Jane, he noticed, was eagerly consuming her food, giving a small sigh of pleasure as each tasty morsel was chewed and swallowed. Quail's eggs again – strange, as Jane normally couldn't stomach such things.

"You had quail's eggs last night, sweetheart." Jane looked up at the King – was that a hint of a smile teasing her red lips?

"Yes, I have a need for them" she said simply.

Henry's breath caught in his lungs...could it be...were his prayers finally to be answered?

"A special need?" Jane nodded, catching her husband's eye once before demurely and properly looking back down at her plate.

Henry stood, barely able to contain his joy.

"Jane, I think you are with child" he said simply. She nodded once, that secret smile once again dancing across her lips. Her nod of affirmation was all Henry needed to run around the table and embrace his wife – roughly at first, until he remembered the delicate condition she was in, and then he was as gentle as a mother with her new born child.

Alone in his rooms, Henry pondered on what to do for Jane. He wanted to give her a gift, but something meaningful. He thought about the quail's eggs – funny, the things that women craved when they were with child. Anne had always craved apples, whenever she was expecting. He remembered the first time – Elizabeth – how hard they had struggled to find apples – good apples – in January and February. Of course, Anne's volatile personality always mellowed a little during her first months, before the baby quickened, so even if there were no apples to be had, she wouldn't complain.

Henry tried to remember what Katherine had craved, but the memory eluded him. Maybe she'd never told him what she craved; preferring to let him focus on running the country, or maybe she'd never had any cravings during her many pregnancies. Maybe he'd forgotten the small details of her pregnancies once he knew there would be no more.

With Jane, he was determined not to forget. Suddenly, an idea came to him. If Jane was craving quail's eggs, and he wanted to give her a gift, he would have quail's eggs imported, so that she would always have plenty for her wants.

Pleased with his grand idea, Henry reclined on his bed and tried to push away the pain in his leg with pictures of the birth of his son. Surely, this time, God would bless him. Surely, this time, he would not again be disappointed by a female heir – good only for her position on the political scene as a pawn to use in the marriage market.

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><p>Thank you for reading, now please review :)<p> 


	2. A Queen's Concerns  1537

I know this has already been posted, but as I stated in the summary of my original Tudor Musings (now Tudor Musings season 2), I'm reposting them all according to season, so that they're in a vague chronological order. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Jane Seymour should have been able to rest easy. After all, she'd done what neither of Henry's previous wives had managed – given birth to a live, healthy son. But she couldn't rest, even though the best doctors and midwives in the land kept telling her that if she didn't rest and take it easy, she'd be abed longer, or worse.

What tormented Jane was not the pain and agonies she'd endured to birth the Prince. It was not the fear that due to the dangers of childbirth, her days on this earth were numbered. What tormented Jane was the knowledge that even though she had fulfilled her husband's greatest wish and desire, he would never truly love her. He would never discard her as he'd discarded Katherine, or deliberately cause her lasting and permanent harm and damage, as he had Anne, but he would seek other women. He would flaunt them in front of her, he would expect her to employ his whores and sluts. After all, who would know this better than her? It was how Henry had noticed HER. Funnily enough, when the circumstances were different – when she was the fresh new woman, and the current wife was the old, used harridan, she hadn't even given Anne's feelings a second thought. So she knew that there would be mistresses who wouldn't think of her as they lured her wedded husband into betrayal. Jane had been the bane of Anne Boleyn's life, and everyone in England, everyone in Christendom even, could tell how deep the King's love for the jumped up strumpet from Kent ran. So if he could behave in such a hateful, unloving way to his Anne, what was there to stop his behaving thus to Jane, merely the meek wife who bore him a son?

Her women and advisors and relatives had tried to reassure her that it was her the King loved, cherished and adored, but she knew better. After all, they hadn't shared a bed with him. They hadn't been waked from slumber by the King stirring and muttering in his sleep. The first time it had happened, Jane had found it endearing, until that is, when he'd sighed in deep contentment, as if seeing a loved one again, and then muttered "come to me, Nan". After that first time, it hadn't happened for several nights, and then, when they were locked in a passionate embrace, he'd looked deep into her eyes but without seeing her, and told her that he was thinking of their days at Hever, and how things had seemed easier then, though in reality they couldn't have been more complicated.

That had cut Jane to the quick, and out of fear and love for her King, she'd put it out of her mind and never mentioned it.

Once Jane was pregnant, marital relations were forbidden, but they'd still shared a bed, and most nights she endured the sound of her husband – her lord, master and sovereign – calling in his sleep for Nan, teasing her, telling "his precious Anne" how much he desired her, how he loved her, and pleading with her to come back to him, begging her forgiveness, and promising he'd find a way to get rid of "that Seymour bitch".

So no, Jane did not rest easy. Now she'd done her duty to her King and her country, he wouldn't come near her again. He might publicly give every impression that he doted on her and felt like a man coming out of the darkness into the glorious warmth and brightness of a summer's day. He might disown his 'bastard girl' and treat her ill, but he'd never be able to hide his spark of adoration for his youngest daughter who had all her mother's fire. Anne's daughter would always, in Henry's heart at least, come before Jane's son.

And it was with this knowledge that Jane Seymour's heart broke. Because she loved the King, and adored him. She had been happy to marry him, and not just because of the prestige and honour, but because she deeply cared for him, knew him to have been bewitched and unlucky in love, and felt deep pity for him. But he would never love her.

It was because of this form of unrequited love that uncrowned Queen Jane Seymour, mother to the future King of England, gave up her fight to remain in this world with her husband and son.


	3. A Widower's Lament 1537 to 1538

Another repost, but this one is very short, but one of my favourites. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

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><p>My gentle Jane is gone. No, my gentle Jane has been stolen from me. Though I have my heart's desire – a son and heir in a legitimate marriage – it is at the cost of my source of earthly happiness. I have a son, but I have no wife.<p>

Edward will never hear his mother's Wiltshire lilt, or feel her gentle touch. Never will her cool hand soothe his fevered brow. Never again will her cool hand soothe my fevered brow.

All the time I had with Katherine, and I couldn't divorce her quick enough. All those years I pursued Anne, and now her body rests in two halves in the chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula in the tower. But I have only loved Jane, sweet Jane for not even two years. I wasn't ready for her to go. I'd never have been ready for her to go. She was my shining light; marrying her was like coming out of the darkness into the sun. Now I am in the darkness of night once more, and this time no one will save me, no one will pull me out.

I find humour in strange ironies. Katherine gave birth to three boys – none lived for more than 2 months. She delivered a healthy girl, and died of a canker in her bed, after many years on this earth, not in childbed, with a newborn child. And Anne gave birth to Elizabeth, after promising me a Prince, then that wretched whore poisoned two of my boys, who she should have taken care of and given life to, but her belly killed them. Yet she survived. Oh, but how I wish she'd been the one to die in childbed. But Jane, my innocent Jane, bought our child safely into the world and then left it, peacefully, having done her duty.

Is this my penance? I made Katherine's life hell and broke her heart, and Mary's heart. I wished her dead a hundred times and more. And Anne, I must not forget Anne. Though I doubt I'll ever forget Anne. I pursued her for months and years, forced her to accept my love. I placed her higher than any princess, and then threw her lower than a beggar in the street. I threw two wives away. Does that mean that Jane had to die to pay for my mistakes?

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><p>Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Now please review :)<p> 


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